What Race Is, What It Is Not, and Why It Matters

Recording Link: https://iastate.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=9d4e18dd-1844-4135-b35e-adde0109c241

Fall 2021 Sigma Xi Lecture

"Race" as we use it is not a biological category, not a way in which the forces of biology and evolution have divided up our species. There is no inherently biological reason that most starting running backs in the NFL are black or most CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are white. Nor is there a “natural” explanation for why race relations are often difficult, but there are lots of interesting social, political, psychological, and historical ones. Race and Racism are completely intertwined making Race a tangible reality in our society. But Race is not what most think it is. Racism pervades the very structures of daily life in the USA, and most of us are afraid to talk about race or racism in any depth or with any detail. Fear and ignorance surround the concepts and realities of Race and Racism. In an effort to tackle that this lecture engages what race is, what it is not, and why that matters.  

Agustín Fuentes is a Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University researching human evolution, multispecies anthropology, and structures of race and racism. Fuentes’ books include Race, Monogamy, and Other Lies They Told You: Busting Myths about Human Nature, The Creative Spark: How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional, and Why We Believe: Evolution and the Human Way of Being.